CARPENTER, WILLIAM BENJAMIN, M.D. LL.D. , F. R. S. F. L. S., F. G. S., one Of the most distinguished physiologists and writers on physiology of the present day. Soon after his graduation in Edinburgh in 1839, he published his Principles of General and CoMparative Physiology, which was one of the earliest works giving a general view of the science of life. As the treatise grew in size in successive editions, it was divided into two—The Principles of Comparative Physiology, and The Principles of General Physi ology. These works, together with The Principles of Human Physiology, which origi nally appeared in 1846, and reached a fourth edition in 1853, and The Principles of Mental Physiology (Loud. 1874), form a perfect cyclopfedia of biological science. C. has like wise published A Manual of Physiology; The Microscope, its Revelations and its Uses; a prize essay upon The Use and ill.use of Alcoholic Liquors; and numerous memoirs on various departments of microscopical anatomy, and natural history, in the Philosophical Transactions, etc. His most important original researches are On the Structure of Shells; On the Development of Purpura Lapillus; and On• the Structure, Functions, and General _History of the Foraminifera. For several years he edited The British and Foreign jiTedico-Chirurgical Review, and he was one of the editors of The Natural History Review. In 1848, he was appointed professor of medical jurisprudence at university college, and soon afterwards examiner in physiology and comparative anatomy in the university of London; but he resigned these offices on his appointment, in 1856, as registrar to that university. In 1861, the royal medal was awarded to him
by the royal society; and in 1873, he was elected a corresponding member of the insti tute of France. He took a chief part in the government expeditions sent out in 1t•68 69-70 for deep-sea exploration in the n. Atlantic; and since then be has contributed largely to the discussion of the vexed question of ocean circulation in the journal of the royal geographical society and other periodicals. In the art. ATLANTIC in the Eney. Brit., 9th ed., his views will be found summarized. He advocates the doctrine of a vertical circulation sustained by opposition of temperature only, independent of and dis tinct from the horizontal currents produced by winds; see GULF STREAM. This doctrine was first advanced by prof. Lenz of St. Petersburg in 1845; but Dr. C. was ignorant of this, when the deep-sea observations begun in 1868 led him to an identical theory. Dr. C. has written largely on another controverted subject—that of spiritualism, which he maintains to be a delusion. He entered this field as early as 1853, in an article on ani mal magnetism in the Quarterly Review; a late contribution to the controversy is Mes m,erism, Spiritualism, etc., historically and scientifically considered (Longmans & Co., 1877).